Beaverton is a city in the Tualatin Valley, located in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon, with a small portion bordering Portland.

The tribe named their village Chakeipi, which translates to "place of the beaver",[12] which early settlers referred to as "Beaverdam."

[12] Lawrence Hall purchased 640 acres (2.6 km2) in Beaverdam in 1847 and built a grist mill with his brother near present-day Walker Road.

[12] After the American Civil War, numerous other settlers, including Joshua Welch, George Betts, Charles Angel, W. P. Watson, and John Henry, laid out what is now known as Beaverton hoping they could bring a railroad to an area once described as, "mostly swamps & marshes connected by beaver dams to create what looked like a huge lake."

In 1872, Beaverton's first post office opened in a general store operated by Betts, who also served as the first postmaster of the community.

In the early 1920s, Beaverton was home to Premium Picture Productions, a movie studio which produced about fifteen films.

[14] The lobbying effort succeeded quickly, with the Oregon Legislative Assembly enacting Senate Bill 887,[15] which prohibited Beaverton from annexing Nike without the company's consent.

The bill also applied to property owned by Electro Scientific Industries, Columbia Sportswear, and Tektronix, and in August 2008 the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals ruled that the bill also barred the city from annexing property belonging to Leupold & Stevens.

Beaverton's legal efforts to annex Nike cost the city over one million dollars.

[16] The Oregon State Legislature has also passed legislation which redetermined Washington County's urban growth boundary to include more development.

[19] In 2016, voters approved a $35 million bond for a new 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m2) Public Safety Center built to withstand a major earthquake.

The center, which opened in fall of 2020,[20] now houses the city's Emergency Management and Police Departments.

The Round, a mixed-use development around Beaverton Central MAX Station on the site of a former sewer plant, was announced in 1996.

[25] The Round currently consists of 24,000 square foot of retail space with 63 residential condominiums located above.

[31] The performing arts center, apartments, city hall, hotel, MAX light rail station, plazas, food carts, and nearby businesses are collectively known as Downtown Beaverton.

Beaverton covers a total area of 19.7 square miles (51 km2), all of it land except for small creeks, ponds, and lakes.

Much of the remaining area surrounding Beaverton in the north and southwest constitutes unincorporated Washington County land.

Leupold & Stevens, maker of rifle scopes and other specialty optics, has been located on property adjacent to the City of Beaverton since 1968.

Wade & Co., manufacturer of agricultural and irrigation equipment, is the oldest family-owned company in the state of Oregon.

[53] Progress Ridge Town Square is a lifestyle center also in Beaverton which includes shops and restaurants.

The Howard M. Terpenning Recreation Complex, opened in 1978, features swimming, athletics, tennis, baseball, softball and basketball facilities.

In addition, a Junior Softball team from Beaverton went to 2006 World Series in Kirkland, Washington, ending in sixth place.

All four companies were replaced in 1970 by TriMet,[71] which expanded bus service to cover more areas of Beaverton.

The Sunset Highway connects Beaverton to Hillsboro and the Oregon Coast to the west and Portland to the east.